The Matrix

Just like the rest of the class, i assume, I had previously seen the Matrix and absolutely loved it. The film bent the whole mental framework that the audience had had previous to viewing it. The whole concept is mind blowing. We are all living in a computer program!??! Wow. And the cinematic effects they use simply make the film. The bullet-speed cinematography was superb. It really draws the viewer into the film by creating the illusion that we are actually seeing a bullet at super slowed down speeds to the point where we can view its flight. Just brilliant. The marriage of the concept and the cinematic elements creates a film that up until it was premiered had never been imagined. This film, to be brutally honest, made me want to be a director. Up until this film, I had never imagined that cameras and special effects could produce such jaw-dropping sequences. The Matrix is truly a revolutionary film.

The Truman Show

Honestly, this is one of the most creative, creepy, funny, just plain excellent movies I have ever seen. The Truman Show tackles the issue of how far is too far in reality television as well as exploring the idea of individualism (much like many of the other films we've watched this semester). First off, Jim Carrey is fantastic in the role of Truman, playing the perfect unassuming victim in the ultimate reality show. It really makes the viewer take a step back and look at their lives. It sounds corny, but the film really makes you think about whether or not something like that is actually possible. Who knows. Regardless, the film was great and I loved the concept. The film had all the aspects of the other films we watched, like the protagonist searching to find the reality of his/her surroundings while at the same time, the antagonist is vehemently striving to keep the protagonist in the state of confusion. I thought it was simply great.

Conceiving Ada

While Conceiving Ada was a small-budget film, it had all of the characteristics of a blockbuster: great costumes, intricate plot, good acting, and solid writing. For a film being made on the eve of the computer and internet boom, the themes Conceiving Ada delt with were spot on. The ability to send and receive information from remote points is something we utilize on a daily basis. While communication with the past seems quite far fetched, who knows, I suppose one day, well, actually, nevermind, its all poppycock. Regardless, the film was entertaining. The fact that we were given two seperate characters whose personality's were almost exactly the same was a smart choice. The dichotomy of the two characters worked well and had me intrigued throughout the film. The only thing I had a problem with was Charlene (the bird/agent). I didn't like the way the bird 'flew' through cyber-space with terms to locate and bring back to the present. The analogy is shoved down your throat: I get it, the bird flies through the internet, i don't need to see a toy bird actually flying to the past. It just took me out of the movie. While I don't have any specific ideas for an alternative agent, I still think all the 'bird' references were a bit much, even is Ada's nickname was Bird. Overall, for a small budget, 'sci'fi'/history drama, the movie worked.

Johnny Mnemonic

Again, like I have said in many of my posts.... This is my first time seeing Johnny Mnemonic. To be honest, I really liked it. Not only was the plot line incredibly interesting, it was nice to see Ice-Tea playing a serious role (that's not a joke, he was the leader of the Low-Techs). What was weird though, was to see Keanu Reeves playing an almost identical role as the one he played in The Matrix (the 'one' who was sent to save the world). On another note, the movie was really intriguing in the way the director portrayed the future with the issue of human information carriers. The way that people can simply have implants in their heads that act as hard-drives that are capable of storing information that can be transported is phenomenal. It is almost analogous to e-mail. This movie was made in 1995, when the Internet was in its infancy, so the directors were really visionaries in that aspect. Overall I really enjoyed this movie. Johnny Mnemonic made me think about how people in the past as well as present envision the future and its digital capabilities... it's wild. I really enjoyed the film, if not for it's special effects, the way the viewer is forced to see a wild and wonderful vision of the future is spectacular.

Total Recall

Again, this was the first time I'd seen the movie and again, I was very impressed. As of last week I had not seen an Arnold movie that I enjoyed (sorry all you Terminator and Jingle all the Way fans), however Total Recall was less of an Arnold movie and more a just plain mind intriguing movie. It was great. I love films that make you so uncertain of what's going on that it's entertaining, like Memento and Reservoir Dogs. The fact that throughout the entire movie, the audience was forced to question whether Quaid was in a dream or actually experiencing this secret agent lifestyle is amazing. The writing was superb. When this film was made, virtual reality was in its infancy and that its possibilities were endless, and I suppose still are. Total Recall explored the doors that virtual reality has opened: alternate realities, false memories, etc. I am upset that this was the first time I'm seen this film, I wish I had seen it long ago so that I could have re-watched it a hundred times so I could figure out exactly what happened. To be honest, even after class discussions, I still have a hard time believing that from the second Quaid entered Rekall that he was in a dream. Regardless, I foung this movie thought provoking and extremely entertaining. Bravo Arnold.

Blade Runner

This was the first time Id seen Blade Runner, and I have to admit I wasnt much of a fan. I did however really like the concept of the Replicants. The fact that they were programmed to be stronger and smarter than the average human was a cool idea, as well as the foresight to program a time limit on their existence. After we talked in class about the possibility of Deckard being a Replicant, I went home and re-watched the film and have decided that he is not one. According to the back of the DVD case, the unicorn vision he has was not in the original movie: It was added into the film before its "digitally remastered" re-release to possibly "suggest Deckard may be a humanoid." It is my feeling that some fans of the original production had that very question of Deckards human status and pressed Ridley Scott or Michael Deeley to clarify his status and they then added that unicorn scene. Regardless, the film was decent but nothing special in my mind. The only note worthy aspect of the movie was the concept of the replicants, though I thought it could have been done better.

Tron

To be honest, this was the first time I'd seen Tron, which is surprising because after watching it I can't imagine not being obsessed with it as a child (it opened only two years before I was born, you'd think somebody would have introduced it to me). Overall, getting past the computer graphics (while I respect that this was the first time graphics like this had been attempted) Tron was a great story. It addressed the issues that are currently being debated, like the point in time when computers will be so intelligent that they become the dominant force and the subsequent human interfacing with the computer to destroy it, it was quite ahead of its time. It was a little hard for me to get past watching the Dude from the Big Lebowski save the computer world and become the Hero of a PG Disney movie. Oh yea, and what REALLY took me out of the movie was seeing a giant Mickey Mouse head on the ground as the butterfly on a beam-of-light ship passed over it, that was really unnecessary and blatant product placement. That was not my cup of tea. Also, having been a huge Southpark fan my entire life, it was hard for me to take the image of the master controller seriously, because that was the same image of Moses in a Southpark episode, an episode where Moses demands paper plate maraca's and macaroni necklaces. On that note however, I recognized a lot of scenes in the film from a lot of my favorite television shows, like the light cycle scene in Family Guy... ok I'm getting off track... Either way, I thought this was a great movie for its time, I even went out and bought it so I could watch the extra features, I'm a movie nerd like that!

Escape Velocity and THX 1138

It came as a suprise to me that the reading, Escape Velocity, was written in 1995 as the beginning of the internet revolution was taking place. Almost all of Mark Dery's notions and idea's are right on with what has emerged from what he calls a "techno-eschatology" What struck me most when trying to compare his writing to the film THX 1138, was the notion of televangelism, though not expressly written in that term. What he writes is actually an idea by John Winthrop which states that "Where Christian teleology, free-market visions of boundless expansion, and an abiding faith in technology have intertwined in a secular theology." While i was barely a teenager when this was written, it seems to me almost prophetic. As with George Lucas's vision, and maybe even Orwell, the idea that technology will eventually be so intertwined with human life, consumption, growth, and prosperity, that we will be so dependent on it that it will become an unhealthy, if not dangerous, fixiation and addiction. Our society in America at this point in time is based on the need to advance technologically while at the same time consume and commodify anything and everything to the point where the original purpose of technological advancement (i.e. medicine, food prodution) has been lost and forgotten. We are truely living in a time where we have lost where we came from, and the only way we are going to remember our current lives in the future will be through the lens of a video camera.

2001

This was my first time watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's funny to think that back in the 60's this is really what they thought our technology would be like in 2001. While that was just a sub-plot of the film, it was really interesting to me to think of evolution as quick, abrupt stages in time spawned by intelligent monoliths from outerspace. I am a huge fan of some of Kubrik's other films, especially Full Metal Jacket and A Clockwork Orange, so I went into this film expecting great things, and while I wasn't let down, it was not what I expected a Kubrik film to be. To start off with it was incredibly slow at the begining, though I was quite suprised to hear the unique music that has been sampled and replayed a thousand times in other media. Was this movie the first to use that music? I was also suprised to see that this was the movie that featured the apes circled around a mysterious large object in awe, that has been re-used hundreds of times in other outlets. I did not know that 2001 was the movie that first used that image. The movie left a few questions to be answered, but overall was pretty good, maybe a bit too long though... oh yea, and what the heck does "HAL" stand for? It has to be an acronym for something!